Our Adventure in the ER

I woke up Sunday morning about 9:00 am and ate right away to protect my body from any nausea...my usual morning routine.  I throw-up once, so I thought I would eat a little more, thinking that I was just hungry.  We had had a youth retreat the night before, so I went with Chad to take the kids home.  About 10 minutes into the fabulous van ride I realized that I was going to throw-up again.  I tried my hardest to take deep breaths and focus, but I couldn't keep in it.  I ended up sticking my head out the window and throwing up all over the road.  And I was really so sick that I didn't care what I looked like or what the kids in the van were thinking.  I got home and just thought I was tired, so I took a 2 hour nap.  I woke up with the same headache I'd gone to bed with, but I thought I should try that "eating thing" again.  Little did I know that I had a 12-hour journey of throwing-up ahead of me.  I called a nurse around 5:00 pm and she said it was probably viral and gave me some suggestions.  After I continued throwing up (what could have only been my insides by now), I decided that I was really sick.  Chad made the executive decision to take me to the ER.  We arrived about 11:00 pm and waited in the waiting room for 2 hours (I threw-up once while waiting), and then we were moved to a bed in the hallway.  They started my IV, and I really wanted to sleep, but with others in the hallway moaning about their spastic colon...sleeping was not really possible.  About 3:30 am we were moved into a room.  I got another bag of fluid and some medicine, and plenty of nurses and doctors checking in on me about every 20-30 minutes (we didn't really sleep in there either).  They took a urine sample, when I could finally provide them with one, but they said it was "dirty".  What that means is that now a nurse was coming in to get a "clean" urine sample by using a catheter.  OH MY GOSH!  I wish I could describe to you how that felt...not pleasant, that's for sure.  The only truly wonderful thing to come out of this night was that the doctor did a sonogram to check on the baby.  And there he (just a general term) was.  He was so big compared to the last time I saw him.  And he was definitely sucking his thumb.  The doctor said the heart was beating fine and the baby was moving, so everything looked okay.  And after all of this, at 6:00 am, they finally told me that I have Hyperemesis (definition below) and that I could go home.  After seven long hours in the ER we could finally go home and get some rest.  

HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM:  "excessive vomiting of pregnant women" is a severe form of morning sickness, with unrelenting, excessive pregnancy-related nausea and/or vomiting that prevents adequate intake of food and fluids.